Universal remote control, such as replacement garage door remote control, has been around for many years. It is commonly used to replace an original remote when the original remote is lost, out of order or when a new remote is needed. Universal garage door remote is designed to operate multiple brands of garage door openers by selecting the brand of a garage door opener, which then will transmit coded control signal to the garage door opener that is coded specific to that brand and at a specific frequency.
There are many garage door opener manufacturers and therefore, universal transmitters need to store many coded signals. Some manufacturers even have multiple coded signals and therefore, the memory size of the universal transmitter must be large enough to store all the coded signals.
From the user's stand point, selecting the correct brand or the proper coded signal could be a challenge when the number of brands or coded signals stored in the memory increases. The steps to set up a universal garage door opener may be unnecessarily complicated when there are so many brands to choose from.
Another kind of universal garage door remote control consists of a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver has a relay output which is connected to and for actuating the push button of the garage door opener. This kind of garage door opener remote control does not involve communicating directly with the original garage door opener. The coded signals therefore do not need to match with that of the original garage door opener. However, this type of system generally requires users to connect a wire from the receiver to the push button. This type of system also will not work if that specific push button is a wireless push button, which means there is no wire between the push button to the opener unit, or if that opener unit does not accept a relay output signal, also known as a momentary contact signal from the push button.
Therefore, there is a need to have a universal garage door remote control system that is simple to set up, without having to select a specific brand of coded signals or a coded signal among many for a brand from a database, and requires no additional wiring to the existing push button as the push button may not have a wire connected to the opener or the opener may not accept a momentary contact signal from a relay at the push button wire connection.
The forgoing creates challenges and constraints for providing a universal remote control system that may be used to replace a remote control system for a typical garage door opener. There is therefore a need for a universal remote control system for a garage door opener as compared to the existing art. It is an object of the present invention to mitigate or obviate at least one of the above mentioned disadvantages.